June 14, 2009

"The Palins have no intention of providing a ratings boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman," PalinPAC spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said Wednesday.

So Letterman is a child abuser for making a tasteless joke?

Sullivan seems to miss that Stapleton just made a child-rape joke. It's a joke! Well, it's a joke is not an apt excuse — is it? — when the joke is supposed to work based on a shared belief about the butt of it.

Stapleton's joke depends on seeing Letterman as someone who's enthused about the rape of children — or at least the children of politicians we don't like. By the same token, Letterman's joke worked to the extent that the audience shares the belief that Palin's daughter is a big slut.

Neither joke is any damned good. Letterman is a creep for making a girl the butt of his joke, and Stapleton is an idiot for trying to show that she can joke too and cranking out another dose of child-rape humor.

But the surrealism and narcissism of the Wasilla nutcase is what stands out:

"First, remember in the campaign, Barack Obama said, 'Family's off limits. You don't talk about my family.' "And the candidate who must be obeyed, everybody adhered to that and they did leave his family alone. They haven't done that on the other side of the ticket and it has continued to this day so that's a political double standard."

So brandishing a special needs infant as a campaign prop was putting your family off-limits? Pushing your own daughter into the klieglights to divert attention from your own fantastic lies is family-protective? Pushing Bristol Palin into an absurd abstinence campaign to gin up support from the Christianist right is looking after your kids? Palin reaps what she sows. And she clings to any whisp of victimhood like the attention-starved celebreality star she really is.

Bristol Palin's abstinence effort seems pretty silly to me too, but there's no reason to view that as opening her up to all sorts of vicious mockery. She found herself in an awfully uncomfortable spot. It's embarrassing enough for a teenager to become pregnant by accident, but to endure this in the crossfire of a political campaign had to be excruciating. But she put up with it somehow, didn't take the out of abortion, kept smiling, and tried to turn herself into a good lesson for others. How is this sowing something that she deserves to reap?

Or — oh — it's Palin who reaps what she sows. Is the girl not a person worthy of any regard? What did the girl do? "Family's off limits. You don't talk about my family." Obama said that. It was intended to bind his harshest opponents to a standard of behavior. Sullivan offers absolutely no reason why the same principle does not protect Palin's family.

And why should the governor of a state be called an "attention-starved celebreality star"? Is it because you don't respect her as a politician? You might call everyone with the nerve to run for President/Vice President an attention-starved celebreality star, but the fact is you don't. Apparently, it's because she's got kids who do things that you think we can sit back and view as objects of idle amusement. If anyone is to be a politician — in your nasty little world — their kids better toe the line and stay perfectly prim and healthy and smart (or hide).

barely readable, twisted-logic rants devoid of moral integrity or authority, a Nazi-like accuser of those who disagree with him. Andrew is today a sad, pathetic whiner of limited vision, basically a shell of what might have been.

Or — oh — it's Palin who reaps what she sows. Is the girl not a person worthy of any regard? What did the girl do? "Family's off limits. You don't talk about my family." Obama said that. It was intended to bind his harshest opponents to a standard of behavior. Sullivan offers absolutely no reason why the same principle does not protect Palin's family.

Because he can't - no one can.

Andrew plays to the emotionallly immature who already agree with him. He's basically the same person as Perez Hilton, just using bigger words.

Letterman's a creep. The second he thought it was appropriate to make that joke about the 14 year old daughter of a politician - or the 18 year-old daughter, for that matter, he became a creep.

If I had a teenage daughter, and some gap-toothed, green-haired uncle made a joke like that at a family reunion picnic about her, I'd keep my daughter away from him, too.

Why put a child through that? "Oh, hon, he's alright, even though he verbally sexually assaulted you on tv. Let's go see him." Or "Yeah, guess what! Mommy's going to appear on the show! That way it won't go away for another week! You can get teased at school about it some more!"

No, Letterman's a creep, and he absolutely crossed the line with that one.

Is this the same Andrew Sullivan who wrote a book 15 years ago on the First Amendment?

I'm having trouble keeping all these personalities straight.

It's dangerous to go after children. They oiught to be left alone -- non-combatants. I can understand why shots were taken at Bristol since the left wants to point out the double-standard on sexuality in the Christian right -- but to mock someone so young isn't charitable.

If you want to take the ethical high road, then you have to take the ethical high road even when cheap shots are so tempting.

I too think Bristol has held up unbelievably well under all the crossfire she's taking. She's emerging, ironically, as the most mature of all parties.

Andrew Sullivan is a dirty sleazy scumbag. I wish he would shut up and go back home to the UK. He has long since outlived his welcome with his dirty slimy attacks on our citizens. I say this as an immigrant and a naturalized citizen.

I know Sullivan is trying to re-live his glory days, when people would read his blog every day to see which fellow Conservative he'd turn on, but now that the election is over, Sullivan should know the audience for his brand of hate is gone.

If he wants a ratings boost he should try enabling comments. What a troll-fest that would be!

i have been wanting to say this about sex ed teaching in families for quite some time. you have to remember that most families have one or two kids today. they never withstand the test of getting six, seven ,eight kids through to adulthood with whatever type of sexual advice.

we have so much parenting advice from parents who have a sampling of one or two kids. gads i only have three and i know that their personalties are wildly different in three direction. in my own siblinghood a sampling of five reveals not all the same parenting, personalities , nor schooling and not all the same results in teen sexual behavior.

i mean i did not even go out on dates compared to a sister who had boyfriends from age 14 on.

Who said Stapleton was making a joke? Where does that come from? I believed her quite serious. The Palins WON'T be going on Letterman. Anyone who "jokes" on national TV about a named and specific and totally innocent 14-year-old girl getting publicly raped, all as a supposed big hahaha, ought to be avoided and shunned. By the family and by the young target of the "joke." Why are you choosing to not get that? Excepting for those blinded by political ideology, It's not really that difficult a concept to see and get.

Bristol Palin's abstinence effort seems pretty silly to me too, but there's no reason to view that as opening her up to all sorts of vicious mockery

Why does it seem silly to you?

I suppose that you think it is silly of former alcoholics to belong to AA and become mentors?

The girl made a mistake and is trying to help inform other young girls (and boys) about the consequences and a way to not make the same mistake. I personally find this admirable and not silly at all. It would be easy to withdraw from the public eye. Instead it seems to me a selfless and rather brave action.

I also took the it would be wise to keep Willow from Letterman on a different level than child rape. More like don't let that asshole get near my daughter if you want him to be able to continue to pee standing up.

Anyone who looks to a reading of Andrew Sullivan for instruction on values - any values - is beyond help and as desperately in need of therapy as Andrew obviously has become in recent years.

Oh, and I think that Stapleton may have been trying to say - lamely, to be sure; but again, any other expectation would be foolish - that Willow, at 14, would be more than a match for Letterman and would have him pinned, verbally and quite possibly physically, before the old man knew what was happening to him.

This is what Democrats do. They degrade the family members of Republican politicians in order to dissuade potential Republican candidates from running for office. The degradation also makes it harder for the politicians to get elected. Voters respond to it, especially when the mainstream media makes the story "Is Gov. Palin a bad mommy" intead of "vile sewer-dwelling Democrats attack Palin's family for electoral advantage." In the long run, it gives them an electoral advantage.

When Ashley Biden got caught with her face in a pile of cocaine, the media sprang into action. It immediately wanted to know who dared to videotape her, and threatened to expose him and run him into the ground if he released the video. He suppressed the video, and in exchange they spared him. The media acted to suppress the news in that instance. The liberal media doesn't do that for Republicans.

If Bristol got caught with her face in a pile of cocaine, the media would do everything it could to protect the people responsible for "outing" her, and would be offering money to anyone else who could videotape her doing something embarrassing.

That's the context of David Letterman's "joke" about 14-year-old Willow. (The joke was about Willow--she was at the game, not Bristol). Letterman wants to degrade every member of Palin's family so she won't run again. Even if you believe Letterman's non-apology--where he doesn't even acknowledge making a mistake about who was at the game, and instead accuses his critics of bad faith for taking the joke to be about Willow--he's still degrading her.

What is Willow supposed to get from his non-apology? That in 3 years, when the next presidential election cycle starts up again, that she'll be fair game for Letterman's morbid interest in her interpersonal relationships?

It's disappointing that Willow Palin will not sue David Letterman for this egregious breach of her privacy rights. Letterman committed the privacy tort of "false light." You can't just go around calling specific 14-year-old girls sluts on national television. There's no intent requirement for false light, so even if you believe Letterman's arrogant non-apology, he's still liable.

So brandishing a special needs infant as a campaign prop was putting your family off-limits?

This issue has come up over and over. One of the things that really got certain people going against Palin was not keeping the retarded baby hidden away. She should have have been suitably ashamed and kept him out of sight.

People like Andrew Sullivan will feign sympathy for the handicapped in the abstract, but are viscerally repelled by them in person.

It's 2003,4? maybe. I am the most junior of junior attendings in junior-attending-land on the banks of the Charles, Boston.

I attend, somewhere on the Harvard campus, a reading of Andrew Sullivan's book about gay marriage. It is the days of wine-and-roses-and-conservatives-reading-Sullivan-who-loves-President-Bush.

It is a quite nice talk, very friendly, with a nice question and answer session. He kindly signs books for some of the audience.

I bring book to work, and ask one of my coworkers if he would like the copy? He rolls his eyes and says something along the lines of, "I remember when he was against gay marriage in the Advocate," or something similar.

Oh, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, doesn't this remind you of high school? Where one person is the designated person to be picked upon, and everyone picks on that one person, because that's what kids do? I didn't understand it then, I don't understand it now.

Jeff Goldstein pointed out the structure of the joke, but went further and suggested that instead of outrage over what Letterman said, turn this against Obama and Clinton and ask them if jokes involving children (over 18 or not) are acceptable? Andrew Sullivan gave Goldstein a Yglesias award (ignoring the part about challenging taking on kids with Obama and Clinton). Not surprising since Sullivan led the attack of Trig Trutherism against Palin and Sullivan is not hampered my things like honesty, ethics or evidence in his jihad to bring Palin down. PW responded that perhaps this should be nominated instead.

Letterman is a pig. But the hypocrisy of the media, and expecially Andrew Sullivan, is something else.

also in identifting the act of deciding against abortion when a child will be born severely handicappedit is not always the noble cause.

i know in all my pregnancies i was alone with no family or friends anywhere. the third pregnancy i was lucky to have a bit more stability in location so there grew friendships that actually lasted three years. that was the most. sometimes we were moving every year, every three years , changing companies and locations even countries. a difficult pregnancy with a special needs child would have been too much for one woman alone to handle. i would have been broken. i am not too proud nor too embarassed that i would have been pro abortion in such a case because in my situation being pro abortion would mean saving my and my families existence.

Sullivan's potrayal of difficult decisions that are made in abortion are true. Does that mean abortion on demand is then required, right up to the birth of a child? That is not what Sullivan has said in the past, he used to be against abortion beyond the first trimester with the exception of rape, life of the mother being in danger, and severe birth defects.

While there is a small minority who would legally ban almost all abortions and a small minority who would support it being totally unrestricted, the vast majority of people fall well within those positions. That is where the political and legal debate lies.

But make no mistake, Trig Trutherism was about Andrew Sullivan wanting to break some big story, acting completely irresponsible and cavalier with the facts, getting reprimanded by the Atlantic for it, and that has mestasized into a obsession for Inspector Sullivan.

Has any other sitting Governor had to endure what Palin has endured? To attend a charity event only to be called slutty and have two of your daughters called slutty. And worse, people think she deserves it because she is conservative.

I like Palin and don't get this irrational hatred of her. But what I really don't understand is why a group of 'liberals' who claim to be dedicated to protecting minority and women's rights laugh along with the sexism.

also in identifting the act of deciding against abortion when a child will be born severely handicappedit is not always the noble cause

Nan. I think the issue is that to choose to have an abortion or not and especially in the case of knowing the child will be handicapped is YOUR personal choice and as such should not be the subject of OTHER people's moralizing.

Sarah Palin made the choice to keep the child. Would I have made the same choice? Hard to say. I don't know and refuse to judge other people for making these terribly hard decisions.

However, the Left moralizing on her choice AND the Right also weighing in are both totally inappropriate.

People can be pro abortion or anti abortion, but in either case it is none of their business what an individual decides to do. People should butt out.

I agree with Jason and Zeb Quinn. I don’t see Stapleton’s remark as a joke, but rather as a clever barb. I also don’t think it necessarily means that Letterman will sexually assault Willow, or that she will beat him up, but can be read as both. Depending on how Letterman reacts, they could claim it meant something different.

As far as Sullivan, I agree that he’s a misogynist. That’s actually fairly well established: Michelle Malkin, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sarah Palin, Condoleeza Rice, Ann Althouse, let’s see, whom have I left out? For a while he was bent out of shape by Ariana Huffington, but he seems to have calmed down in regards to her.

In regards to Sullivan’s blog, Jason the Commenter said “If he wants a ratings boost he should try enabling comments. What a troll-fest that would be!” LOL!

Bottom line, Letterman is a creep, a dirty old man. I don’t know if it was here or some other blog, but commenters were calling him Lecherman, an apt description. Letterman has also had a habit, over the years, of bullying and humiliating people over the years. Anyone remember the prank phone calls? Anyone remember Sirajul and Mujibar and the way he subtly mocked them?

By the way, speaking of bullies, Keith Olbermann is all in a tizzy, claiming that Letterman is being persecuted, that Letterman took “the high road,” and that Letterman is the “victim.” That’s some pretty strong stuff you’re smoking, Olby.

One thing everyone seems to be overlooking in all of this is A-Rod. What’s his reaction? He’s hardly what I would call a victim, yet he’s also not responsible. It seems to me that A-Rod could garner very positive PR by apologizing for any misperception that he may have been in on the joke and then inviting the *whole* Palin family to dinner.

Was THIS a joke? http://www.buzzfeed.com/buth/the-new-yorkers-obama-cover I think it WAS, satire - as The New Yorker called it. But every liberal rag and network called it tasteless, uncalled for and over-the-line (okay, those are all my words - but it's what I imagine, as I didn't read any of the critics moans about the Poor Obama's - but it is their mantra...blah blah blah - my way or the highway. My version of waterboarding and interrogation - not yours...on and on.)

PatCA wrote: At least he didn't mention his obsession with his "truther" theories about Trig.

Wrong. Sullivan wrote: Pushing your own daughter into the klieglights to divert attention from your own fantastic lies is family-protective?

That's a reference to Trig Trutherism. The "fantastic lie[]" is the claim that Gov. Palin is in fact Trig's biological mother.

It's very sad that Andrew Sullivan's condition has deteriorated so far. Between the HIV-related dementia and all the steroids he's taking, it's a marvel that his brain functions at all. He's a walking corpse, and his brain is rotting from the inside out.

Bear in mind, Andrew Sullivan is employed by The Atlantic. He writes this stuff on their dime.

He attends Atlantic-sponsored dinners where he gets a private audience with Obama administration members.Andrew Sullivan has been rewarded for this type of writing by being granted an audience with President Obama.

Andrew Sullivan has been rewarded for this type of writing by being quoted by President Obama at a prime time news conference. And yes, the information quoted (paraphrased) was wrong. But so what?

Andrew Sullivan has the attention of our celebreality star President. He got it by writing stuff like this.

MayBee, Sullivan's head is so burried in Obama's butt that he can't remember criticizing the right wing pundits for being favorable to President Bush.

Sullivan used to mock Hugh Hewitt and now Sullivan has become and surpassed Hewitt in partisan hackery. That is what made Sullivan's attack on Glenn Reyolds so funny last week. Barack Obama is to Sullivan what Mitt Romney was to Hewitt. But worse.

I totally missed Stapelton's joke! I thought she meant that Letterman better watch out for Willow because she just might beat the shit out of him if she came upon him face to face! Did NOT see the rape deal!

I wrote Sullivan once to say I thought he just didn't factor in how different it will be when women with children at home run for the top ticket. When it's a guy there's usually a childcare answer. Not the same so far for women. But, then, think of JKF! It was an artform then! I'm amazed at how intensely shallow Andrew Sullivan has become.

"This issue has come up over and over. One of the things that really got certain people going against Palin was not keeping the retarded baby hidden away. She should have have been suitably ashamed and kept him out of sight."

No! No! No! What really got certain people going against Palin was that she did not abort her baby once she knew he had Down's Syndrome. The pro-choicers are really not pro-choice when the mother makes the decision to keep a baby--especially a baby with Down's Syndrome.

Neither joke is any damned good. Letterman is a creep for making a girl the butt of his joke, and Stapleton is an idiot for trying to show that she can joke too and cranking out another dose of child-rape humor.

Yeah, I cringed when I read that statement. It's right for the Palins to publicly condemn Letterman --children are off-limits--but this reply just came off as immature and classless. Furthermore, it makes me question Palin's judgment. Stapleton said it, but I'm sure it was vetted by Sarah.

One thing I really don't like about Obama is the immature and often unPresidential statements issued by him and/or his administration. I don't want to see Palin doing that if she's going to run in 2012.

Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it. -- "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," 9/2/08

I didn't cringe at Stapleton's statement and I didn't view it as a joke at all.

I viewed it as being protective of Willow. God knows what Letterman would say to her - he's revealed what he has no problem saying to the entire world about her. Who would not keep their daughter away from such a man?

Also, the remarks about Palin seeking attention are bizarre. "Palin keeps getting into these little spats with people. The GOP dinner, other stuff. She seems to like to paint herself as a besieged victim of, whatever." Did she tell Letterman to mention her daughter on his show? Did she solicit that in any way?

And I'm late! Others have already pointed out that this is for Letterman's protection.

"but with politicians, the displaying of the family is non-aggressive and without any weapon connotations. Obama displayed and continues to display Sasha and Malia in the conventional political way,"

Quite so. Palin could not have pretended that Bristol was not pregnant. Being up front and public about that from the start, including inviting Levi to the convention, should have headed off most of the political fallout... if people were decent. Instead the press was even hounding *his* family and frankly, if those kids were left alone they might be married now.

Andrew is proof that the obsession doesn't even have to be REAL. He just made sh*t up and then claimed it was reason to bring her kids into it.

I do think that some people are going way overboard (wanting Letterman fired and stuff, I mean... sheesh) but to answer what I believe is rhhardin's question...

It's like defending copyright.

If you don't sic your lawyers on copyright infringers every so often the fact that you made no effort to defend the name "Kleenex" or "Coke" means that you gave permission for that word to enter the vernacular as "kleenex" or "coke" and you loose the right to sue for damages.

People who say that this sort of thing should be classily ignored miss that a certain amount of push-back *is* necessary to define lines of civil behavior. People will not always agree that certain behavior is even rude if no one complains.

Jeremey said:Well, start with the fact that she herself did not practice abstinence and didn't even get married after having the kid.

You don't think that nbth are a tad hypocritical or "silly?"

I don't know what nbth is but I refer you to my Alcoholics Anonymous example.

Do you think it is silly that a person who didn't practice sobriety, but who has realized the error of their ways is now a mentor to other alcoholics: trying to help them avoid the same pitfalls and errors?

How about recovered drug addicts attempting to educate young people on the dangers and help them not to follow in their path? Silly too?

As for not getting married after having the child. Perhaps she realized that to marry this particular person would only compound the problem. Sometimes not getting married is better.

"I viewed it as being protective of Willow. God knows what Letterman would say to her - he's revealed what he has no problem saying to the entire world about her. Who would not keep their daughter away from such a man?"

That's how I read it. Letterman hates the blameless child as an extension of his hatred for the child's mother. What mother would want to expose their child to that kind of ugly hatred?

"Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it." -- "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," 9/2/08

There's a lot of...well, badness in the world today. I see it in court every day. I've sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber. I didn't want to do it- I felt I owed it to them. The most important decision you can make right now is what you stand for- goodness...or badness.

"Letterman doesn't know the woman, so how could he possible "hate" her?"

Another good point. It's irrational to hate someone you don't know, unless, I suppose, that person is guilty of heinous behavior. So I'd like to ask Letterman what makes him harbor such hatred for Palin.

If the lefties are trying to tear the woman down because they fear she has a chance at the Presidency some day, (why else are they expending effort attacking her?) their strategy is flawed.

A lot of Americans still don't know too much about Palin. (Not everyone is a politics wonk.) The attack machine on the left did an effective job making her look like a stooge and a joke to the average person, during the last election. (Note: I didn't say if it was fair and accurate; just that it was effective).

However, the more the lefties put her in the sympathetic position of the unfairly attacked woman and mother, and the more they give her the limelight, the better they may end up making her look to the average jane and joe- who aren't spittle spewing ideologues.

All this attention also makes one think- there must be something to this woman, if she scares the left so much. Far better would be to just ignore her, or give her the same level of attention as any other republican candidate.

But the card-carrying members of the "reality-based" community can't stop themselves, because they are nucking futz. If they keep this up they may end up handing her the presidency in a few years. The irony would be delicious.

And I notice you can't defend this twerp's ridiculous notion that others should not do what she herself does. (As usual)

I just did defend it with the AA and recovered drug addict examples which you obviously ignored

What is ridiculous about trying to inform people so that they don't do the same things.

Parents do this all the time with their own children. We make mistakes and do things in our own youth that we certainly do not want our children to repeat. There is nothing hypocritcal about learning lessons from life and trying to pass those lessons on to others.

Oh that minx Ann, stirring the pot but posting the ravings of a man descending into full blown aids dimentia. Sully has long since jumped the shark and any notice paid is wasted energy and a little sad at this point. Does anyone expect to read anything remotely conherent from him when it comes to the Palin's?

"If they keep this up they may end up handing her the presidency in a few years. The irony would be delicious."

Yes, but I don't if "delicious irony" is worth the price our country would pay to have another incompetent President following the current incompetent President. I haven't been impressed with Palin in a substantial way since the election in November and I don't think I could support her as a candidate for President, though she was fine as a VP candidate, and certainly smarter and more likable than Joe Biden.

But, that said, I will (and do) defend her against the kind of disgusting, craven personal attacks that are constantly thrown at her and her family. There's another dimension to the attacks on Palin and her family besides the obvious political one. It's an age-old, time-honored thing called class-based hatred. Sarah Palin, you see, isn't "one of us" because she looks too much like "the rest of America". She didn't go to the right schools, she didn't have the right family, she doesn't have the right religious beliefs (i.e., "none" or "politically expedient"), she doesn't have the right accent (i.e. "none" or "bi-Coastal generic"), she doesn't have the right biography, she doesn't have the right children, she doesn't believe the right things, she's doesn't live in the right place... she's all wrong, from the perspective of the indolent, thoroughly entrenched trans-nationalist wealthy that control most of the media in the country.

I'm not implying that sympathy for the treatment she and her family have received is qualification enough to run for President. It's not, just as law school, community organizing, two autobiographies and a lackluster legislative career aren't qualification enough for the job either. But that's a separate issue. Or at least it should be. But a lot of people are smart enough to realized that the attacks on the Palins are just proxy attacks on themselves. The disdain for her and her family is the disdain that the presumptive elite feel towards a majority of Americans. And that should be worrisome to anyone who cares about the future cohesiveness of our Nation. It certainly worries me, and I (ostensibly) have a lot more culturally in common with the Obamas than the Palins.

Andrew Sullivan should not be employed by any respectable publication, and certainly should not have any access to or influence with the President of the United States. But of course we know that Barack Obama isn't very discriminating about the sorts of people with whom he associates.

Sullivan is also a first-order hypocrite who garnered a lot of sympathy (including mine) when the loathsome Michelangelo Signorile and the usual brigade of self-righteous, witch-hunting militants violated his privacy by exposing Sullivan's "power glutes" sex ads and then pissed it all away when he decided to start poking around in Sarah Palin's uterus with a flashlight. With the wisdom of hindsight, I now see that the witch-hunting militants may have had somewhat of a point regarding Sullivan's hypocrisy. Sullivan was first recognized by the press for his scolding, moralistic excoriations of "a life of meaningless promiscuity followed by eternal damnation" when, of course, he was engaging in such a life himself. His hypocritical nature has shown itself again and again since that time. He's shown himself willing to shift his political makeup and his fundamental "ideals" as it suits his career, which I think is the real bottom line with Andrew Sullivan: make a stink, condemn, praise, excoriate, violate, worship, damn... whatever it takes to generate publicity and keep the dough and the attention rolling in. Sullivan has less virtue and less consistency than a 5 dollar street whore, a fact that should be apparent to even his most ardent supporters. And yet he has the temerity to call Sarah Palin an attention-starved celebreality star?

Why do we let this foreign citizen, the subject of the Queen of England, continue to meddle in our domestic political affairs?

I do think that the Stableton statement was a barb, and that it was well aimed.

After the dust settled a little bit, I thought, again, Palin 2, the leftist establishment 0. They constantly try to paint her as stupid, because she didn't go to their elite universities, and has the effrontery to be an uppity conservative woman to boot. She must be stupid, if she didn't abort the Down's baby, or make her daughter do the same with her baby.

But, then again, if Gov. Palin had done that, she wouldn't walk the walk. And that is part of her allure to at least some of us. I may not agree with her choices, but truly respect that she follows her convictions, regardless of cost to her and hers.

I think the other thing that drives a lot of liberals up the wall with her is that she doesn't play their game. She doesn't agree that they are smarter, or have a lock on the truth. And that really is noticeable with the way she deals with the MSM. I noted during the campaign how well she was able to talk through them, and get her message across, when they were trying to get theirs across. Yes, in the long run, they won, but it took getting down and dirty for them to accomplish it. After their interactions during the election, I think she looks better for it, and the MSM looks much diminished.

So, back to Stapleton, it was a pretty good zinger. It hit the mark, and made Palin's point: Letterman is a creep, and they didn't want anything to do with him. So much for a stooopid conservative woman.

"Oh that minx Ann, stirring the pot but posting the ravings of a man descending into full blown aids dimentia."

Of course this kind of comment is stupid and ugly too. Sullivan does not, at least as far as he's revealed, even have AIDS, let alone "full blown aids dimentia" [sic]. There's no reason to posit ignorant quasi-medical reasons for Sullivan's behavior when better, more accurate explanations are easy to see.

And please, do learn the basics of English grammar, punctuation and spelling. Misspelled semi-illiterate sarcasm is just embarrassing.

LOL. Newspapers? Who reads newspapers anymore? I mean, we know you do, as you need them to soak up the piss on the floor around your bed, but the rest of us have, shall we say, more advanced methods of gathering information.

While the wingnuts whine and bitch about how Obama's "diplomacy" isn't working in Iran...as if he or any American has anything to do with Iran or it's election process...we see this today:

Diplomacy: JERUSALEM — "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed an independent Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time on Sunday, dramatically reversing himself in the face of U.S. pressure but attaching conditions the Palestinians swiftly rejected."

And the period can go either inside or outside the quotation mark. It's the American "conventional" approach to punctuation that places punctuation inside quotation marks. But elsewhere in the world (the UK for instance) the "logical" approach to punctuation is followed, allowing punctuation to be placed where it should go logically in the construction.

Maybe if you READ A BOOK or READ SOME INTERNATIONAL NEWSPAPERS you might know this.

He loves it. He always comes back for more and more. Why do you think he comes here?

Have you noticed the undercurrent of violent homoerotic anxiety that manifests itself in Jeremy's more "energetic" comments? How he is immediately drawn to tell his opponents to SUCK HIS DICK, how he imagines his opponents sleeping with each other (HOW'S YOUR BUNKMATE POGO, PALLADIAN?), how he can only see a friendly compliment from one man to another over a comment as a manifestation of homosexual analingus ("BRENT- PULL YOUR LIPS OFF PALLADIAN'S ASS LONG ENOUGH TO TAKE A BREATH")?

There's something to all that. Something dark that has taunted and plagued "Jeremy" all his life.

Once again Jeremy brings his special brand of ignorance to a thread embarrassing to Leftists in an attempt to kill it. It's the internet's version of sticking his fingers in his ears and yelling "I know you are, but what am I!" at the top of his lungs, and pretty much par for the course for him.

Just ignore the kosKids and eventually they'll wander off to find someone else to argue with. He's already discredited himself with an amazing array of subject upon which he has proven his ignorance over and over again.

Someone give him a cookie and tell him his mother is calling home for dinner.

"Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it." -- "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," 9/2/08

"I now plan to return to the former ignoring of his anti-social, hate-filled rants."

It's becoming increasingly difficult. The quantity of comments and their frequency makes them almost impossible to ignore. That's the plan, you know. He does it because he's trying to interfere with the comments and drive people away. He knows Althouse can't get rid of him. Smart people will begin to go elsewhere. After all, aside from the fun to be had occasionally giving the troll a beating, who wants to come here and read the sort of vile, ugly nonsense he posts when you could go somewhere else that maintains a more regulated comment community.

I know Althouse values free speech which I admire, but unregulated environments such as this one make it easy for someone with purely negative, disruptive motives to make it impossible for the majority of commenters to exercise their free speech.

I confess to having once taken Jeremy seriously, but I can no longer do so. I can only treat him like the annoying neighbor's kid who keeps coming over and pulling my cat's tail. It's wrong and it's annoying, but ultimately it's the act of a child whose parents care so little for him that they turned him loose on society rather than put up with the nasty little critter themselves.

Eventually you see that kid again years later on Cops: drunk and disorderly after getting his butt kicked by the other patrons of the bar for running his mouth once too often to the wrong people.

Happy Flag Day Jeremy! The waive of Palin popularity grows while you continue in panic to weaponize your hip bullshit. She will be standing when its over. The Republicans don't need a Mensa certified candidate like the commenters here on Althouse seem to require. They just need a strong competitor who will will win the 2012 Presidential election. That it takes a strong woman to serve in that role is no shame, and the liberal's drumbeat of sexually demeaning slurs against Governor Palin are only the last resort of an already beaten Party of propaganda.

I say used to, because I stopped watching about 7 years along with 1/2 his audience. Its hard for Letterman to keep playing the irreverent "hipster" - given he's bitter 60 year old multi-millionaire in $2,000 suit.

You know, I can scroll past Jeremy's posts without reading b/c his name is at the top (as all commenters' names are). But I accidentally read the responses to him by people whose comments I always read. We actually could prevent the thread hijacking if we all just put him on ignore.

"I haven't been impressed with Palin in a substantial way since the election in November and I don't think I could support her as a candidate for President,"

My initial reaction as well. But who knows- some day I may end up voting for the woman, the more I get to know her.

Can she really be that much worse than past presidents we have survived? Or the current messiah-in-chief, sent to deliver us from income?

I no longer believe in the hero mythos of my youth. The laugh producing, gag inducing and downright shudder inspiring lunacy of the "yes we can" clan, put the final nail in that coffin.

I don't want a savior for president. Just a normal, sane, real person will do. And if they really want my vote, just run on the "I'll leave you the hell alone" platform, and I may even contribute to their campaign.

who wants to come here and read the sort of vile, ugly nonsense he posts when you could go somewhere else that maintains a more regulated comment community.

Yes. It is like going out for Pizza. You can go to a great little neighborhood pizzaria with authentic sauces, great crust, fresh and quality toppings good wine and beer list and a congenial atmosphere .....or you can end up a Chuck E Cheese with a bunch of snot nosed screaming brats and pizza that tastes like it was made from recycled plastic milk jugs dipped in grease with a gigantic psychotic mouse cavorting around.

I don't want a savior for president. Just a normal, sane, real person will do. And if they really want my vote, just run on the "I'll leave you the hell alone" platform, and I may even contribute to their campaign.

I agree. But I haven't heard her say anything I've really felt great about since the big convention speech. At the time I thought "Wow. This is really what the GOP needs."

But she hasn't said anything else that really resonated like the things she said that night. I keep waiting to hear them, and I am paying attention, believe me.

I don't want her to be perfect, but I want someone who's truly conservative fiscally. I'm not 100% sure she is. I don't care so much about the "small town" stuff or social conservatism. I want someone to get in there and clean house and reduce gov't. Has she done that in Alaska? I'm not sure I've really seen that.

The subtext of Letterman's apology was that dumb sluts like Palin do not recognize the irony and subtlety of Letterman's humor. Sullivan also points out that dumb sluts like Palin do not appreciate the meaning of feminism and should shut up and bring some salted almonds.....I think Palladian's comment at 2:26 about the snobbism that underlies all this is point on. Whatever reservations I have about Palin's qualifications for the Presidency, it is undeniable that she has led an admirable and decent life. Those who look at Sarah Palin and only see a joke are bigots.....I think Letterman will eventually saw himself in half on his own jagged edges. Palin's values will give her and her family a fine life. I would rather be Palin's daughter than Letterman's son.

"I've never encountered so many negative and thoroughly depressing people in my life."

Have you ever made a positive comment in your entire history of posting here as either "Luckyoldson", "Michael" or "Jeremy"?

If you find the place so annoying and "depressing" and negative then why do you come here, every day, posting hundreds of comments a week?

The reason is that you're a classic troll. You have no interest in anything except disrupting the comments here. We know that you've changed names several times, the classic behavior of an internet troll, yet when we complain about you, we're "bitching", according to you and to Alhouse. So what are we to do? We can't ignore your comments, you've made certain of that. We can't complain to the host because she can't and won't do anything about it. So what's the choice?

Hey, that's a good new nickname for Obama. Every time he wants one of his "payback my supporters" or "wreck the economy" or "let's take over another major industry!" bills passed, he trots out his "IT'S AN EMERGENCY!!!!! THE ECONOMY WILL FAIL IF YOU DON'T PASS THIS!!! DON'T READ IT, THERE'S NO TIME!!!! DANGER!!!" routine.

palladian, if you start a blog, I will read it. And frankly, hundreds, if not thousands will too, including the esteemed likes of John Stodder, Simon, Beth, and Drill Sgt, all of whom have complimented you in one form or another over the years.

Your writing is cogent, persuasive and amusing, and this is being said now by someone who probably agrees with your particular angles maybe 70-80% of the time (where does anyone find 100% with another?).

Althouse is brilliant in her topic choices and her concise framing of the start of the discussion. But this is her blog, and it is obvious that she no longer has either the time to invest in the discussions or, worse, has become apathetic about them after her immediate interest of the moment. Remember when she used to actually participate even a little in most of the discussions? Now the place is changing from a coffee house with character to a warehouse aggregator. Pity. Like so many, success has ruined the effective Althouse blog - what was once a place of real community and political/social often-collegial debate has drifted into the environs of "Hey amuse me, worthless ones! And then only if I can be stirred to give you a royal audience! I have given you the platform - and I am famous, damnit! I can coast now (isn't that what we do when we are famous?)!"

I tried posting for about 8 days under a different pseudonym (Brent is my real name) here about 2 weeks ago. Last Friday I was on a Mac at the college when I typed in "Althouse" into Goggle on Safari. The SECOND listing was a quote made by me under that pseudonym on a recent Althouse post! It was a response to Jeremy. I felt ashamed that i hadn't used my real name. Worse, I felt ashamed that that was the #2 search result out Google could pull up out of more than 800,000 results. This great blog has fallen from it's previous heights of relevance.

The guy who garnered the 2nd most support in the latest Republican poll, right behind the fat radio entertainer.

The guy who was booted by his own party.

The guy who was in charge when his party lost more House seat during the midterm elections that they had in nearly a century.

The guy who shut down the federal government because he was miffed over getting a bad seat on Air Force One.

The guy who had to pay a $300,000 fine after being reprimanded for ethics violations.

The guy who saw nothing wrong with getting a $4.5-million book deal from Rupert Murdoch, while Murdoch had several pieces of business pending before the House.

The guy who bitched and whined (sound familiar?) about Clinton's immoral behavior, all while handing his cancer stricken wife divorce papers.

The guy who forced his ex-wife to depend on church donations because he wouldn't pay for the support for her and his daughters.

The guy who, six months after that first divorce, remarried...right up until he had an affair with an aide 23 years his junior...and got another divorce. (All while he pushed for Clinton's impeachment because of his dalliance with Lewinsky.)

I told ya on Friday: this flap is great for CBS and Letterman. He needs a bump in viewership, since last week was his first head-to-head with Conan O'Brien, and it looks like he is getting it. It's sweeps week for him. He needed this, he made it happen, and we (and Palin) support it by giving this creep his publicity.

Of course, there is no such thing as bad publicity in that business. I bet the only thing Letterman regrets is that he didn't say something even more demeaning and misogynistic.

Palladian said..."Have you ever made a positive comment in your entire history of posting here as either "Luckyoldson", "Michael" or "Jeremy"?"

I've made many positive comments regarding support for our President, our soldiers, our country and our duty to support our government while attempting to deal with a massive worldwide crisis.

You and others ignore such comments because you'd rather bitch and whine about anything Obama or anything liberal or anything with which you disagree.

Just read through the 1,000's of comments on this site that denigrate Obama or anybody who isn't a conservative.

You despise Obama, you disagree with his every economic move, you think diplomacy is bad (even though Reagan, Nixon and even Bush did their best to implement diplomatic solutions).

You're against what you call socialism, all the while know you either currently or in the future will take advantage of everything from Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment, Veteran's Benefits, Social Security, etc....ALL socialist programs.

You and most other regulars spend your entire time sucking up to each other, agreeing with damn near anything anybody you feel is one of the gang or "pack."

There's seldom any form of discourse or disagreement, only a piling on of silly and childish slams against literally anything Obama does...even after seeing the kind of ineptitude we witnessed via Bush and company.

I think most here are cowards and just don't have the guts to admit they were wrong, and are still wrong.

I've never encountered so many negative and thoroughly depressing people in my life.

You complain about literally anything you perceive as being contrary to what you want to be so.

Whereas you are basically at peace with the universe, think that there's nothing particularly wrong with the government at any level, and are willing to let everyone you meet continue to behave, more or less, as they do now.

You know, if embodying and communicating sweetness and light is actually what you want to do, I think you've possibly taken a wrong turn somewhere.

I don't think you have ever replied to Dust Bunny Queen's example of a reformed alcoholic or addict teaching others to stay away from alcohol and drugs. Either that's fairly analogous to someone who's had unprotected sex and gotten pregnant advising other teen girls not to do the same, or it isn't.

So either you think every teaching effort of this kind is horespucky; or you think all of them are worthwhile, and therefore retract what you said about Bristol Palin; or else you can distinguish Bristol Palin logically from the others. Choose one, please.

"When juris dentist called her "Annie" I predicted she would come down on him like a ton of bricks. (Does anyone call her "Annie"? [except maybe Meade, now]) But I didn't see any response from her."

"Juris Dentist" is a little nuisance that's been around under dozens of different names for years now, and has called Althouse "Annie" for as long as I can recall. He's harmless because he usually only posts one comment every once in a while, always on the "you're such a narcissist, Annie" theme.

Jeremy is a very different sort of creature, the only true "troll" that inhabits these comments.

Brent, thank you for the compliments. I must, however, disagree with your assessment of Althouse's attitude and disposition toward the blog and its commenters. Even if I stopped reading the comments here, I'd still read the blog, as I came her primarily for Althouse and her unique perspective on things and her excellent writing. I don't think this has substantially changed, though I think there's a little less than there used to be, which is entirely understandable given the happy circumstances of her life lately.

The comments, however, are a different story. The commenters Althouse has collected over time have been a tremendous asset and an extraordinary supplement to Althouse's writing. I get so upset about people like "Jeremy" because I hate to see someone so intent on maliciously and deliberately destroying this asset. Althouse has a very expansive view of free speech here, which I think is an asset and a liability. A liability because the technology behind the comments here does not give her the capability to intervene even if she chooses to, except to tediously delete comments by hand. This allows people like "Jeremy" to take over. You see very, very few online communities of the size and volume of Althouse's comment section that doesn't use some sort of threading, blocking, IP-banning, or other community protection measures.

If things continue as they have, I fear that more and more intelligent readers and commenters will leave. Perhaps it doesn't matter. But I hate to see it happen, so I always feel the need to say something.

Andrew Sullivan went way off the rails with his Trig Trutherism jihad and it did not abate after the election. It is patholical and sick. Not liking Palin is fine, but the personal attacks? They are beyond nuts. Everything Sullivan has said and criticized about the right, he has incorporated, mulitplied and directed at Palin. Hypocrisy and dishonesty in political smears has a name, it is Andrew Sullivan on the topic of Sarah Palin.

As an analyst he cannot be trusted on that person.

But credit where credit is due, Sullivan is doing a good job today on Iran.

I think everyone got this wrong. I believe she was saying, it would be for HIS safety that they keep Willow away. Willow hasn't learned the political correctness of saying nothing with a smile. She'd probably like to deck him!

I mean, take Sarah Palin for example. She had enough smarts to push through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, and then get Exxon to sign on to it a year later. She's also one of the few state governors who has actually cut her state budget during this Depression in reaction to the decline in oil prices.

But Jeremy and most of the Democratic activist base still treats her as a dumbfuck because they are True Believers and that's how they are conditioned to react.

Remember what Dr. Johnson said: "You cannot argue a man out of something he was not argued into."

Jeremy bases every thing he posts on what Markos "F*** 'em" tells him is the politically correct position.

He is akin to the pit bull bred to a life of fighting. He knows nothing but blind obedience to the liberal orthodoxy even when it requires the most paradoxical thinking to justify it.

But perhaps I give him too much credit by implying that there is any thought to his posting. He is literally a clone of every kosKid ever produced by that conveyor belt of hate and ignorance. You can pick them out of every crowd because they always have a quote to cut and paste into any discussion - no matter how tangential that quote may be. It always lacks appropriate context, and is often nothing more than the product of a fervored imagination by one of his fellow drones. Because you see, if they repeat it often enough amongst themselves, then it is Truth - the facts be damned.

Jeremy has shown absolutely zero ability for anything other than the most linear thought processes, absolutely zero knowledge of any manner of world history, and an unerring gullibility in believing the most ridiculous Leftist talking points ever produced. In short, he is nothing but a human Xerox machine. He is capable of producing nothing original himself: he is only capable of parroting back what he is told. When challenged on his arguments, he is capable only of suggesting that his critics fellate him - which the rest of us gave up some time before reaching the age of majority.

What's most amusing about Jeremy and his fellow Lemmings is that they are so incredibly sure of the Truth of their arguments that they can withstand absolutely no disagreement within their own ranks. The numerous ideological purges on denizens like dKos and MyDD and the like are proof that they know their arguments can't survive the light of day. Only by denying even the existence of a greater Truth can they hope to maintain the illusion of their own correctness. From their brainwashing bases which even Kim Jong Il would envy, occasionally one will sally forth - only to find that they are the objects of ridicule and disgust wherever they go. Perhaps if they actually understood or valued the concepts of intellectual diversity, they would gain a better reception. But like the little wanna-be Nazis or Stazi that they are, they only seek to impose their own brand of groupthink on the rest of us. Because they are unfamiliar with dissent, when they meet the inevitable resistance they always resort to childish retort and puffing themselves up - much like boys in junior high.

Jeremy won't change. He lacks the capacity for independent thought. We can only hope that one day he is recalled to dKos for making them look even worse than usual. If that's even possible.

Not only did they make an appearance at the Democratic Convention, they then pushed for a full spread featuring them in People magazine.

Having gotten full mileage out of pushing his family forward, he then cynically claimed that he "regretted" having done so. Not enough to have not done it you see. It's not like it was a feature published the next day in the newspaper. No. It was done and planned over a period of weeks, so he had plenty of time to "regret" it before it was done.

It was one of the most cynical moves ever - and his sycophantic followers like Jeremy just ate it up without even so much as a question about his motives.

This is the campaign that started the Trig Trutherism meme with emails to Andrew Sullivan. That dumped every bit of scurrilous gossip about Palin to their allies in the blogosphere the day after she was selected. That then cynically said that "families were off limits" after having done so. Obama is a pig. Axelrod is a wretch. And the tools that did their dirty work like Jeremy are pond scum.

Ann, why would you assume that what Stapleton said was a child rape joke? Would you want a 14-year old to go near an old twerp who just called a slut and joked about her being raped? It doesn't matter whether he is a pedophile or not, the fact that he jokes dirty about 14-year olds is enough.

I don't see why you read more into the joke when a alternate minimalistic explanation is available?

Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it. -- "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," 9/2/08

That's a Bristol joke...how? It's clearly an Edwards joke. But it's fun to watch you rip off HuffPo and pretend you had a thought of your own...for once.

While the wingnuts whine and bitch about how Obama's "diplomacy" isn't working in Iran...as if he or any American has anything to do with Iran or it's election process...we see this today:

Diplomacy: JERUSALEM — "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed an independent Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time on Sunday, dramatically reversing himself in the face of U.S. pressure but attaching conditions the Palestinians swiftly rejected."

...by basically telling Obama to go fuck himself and that until "Palestine" agrees to terms, he isn't going to stop shit.

With the possible exception of a huge sandwich, he'd love to suck on my cock right now.

Could you supply a list of the guys on this board that you don't spend considerable time obsessing over their cocks?

I've made many positive comments regarding support for our President, our soldiers, our country and our duty to support our government while attempting to deal with a massive worldwide crisis.

I'd like to see one. I don't see you've even made a positive comment about your savior, Obama.

Exactly spot on. On the 2nd of September, the Obama campaign had just unleashed its mindless hordes on "Trig Trutherism" so a Bristol joke was barely on the radar.

Here these sick, twisted people were attacking a Down's baby and questioning his parentage on the media was actually feeding into the frenzy rather than acting like responsible citizens and calling out the jackasses like Jeremy who were most responsible for the horrible lies.

And now our resident kosKid comes to tell us since we didn't threaten to boycott Leno or call for his ouster, then any other "below the belt" humor is necessarily okay. What kind of mental deficiency is required to make that leap of logic?

Don't answer that. kosKid's every post answers it already.

As many have said elsewhere, there comes a time to draw a line in the sand - when people have been pushed as far as they're going to be pushed and begin to push back.

We're already seeing this phenomenon with the grassroots TEA Parties which are happening literally on a daily basis. Conservatives - and even some Independents and nominal Democrats - are beginning to adopt the tactics of the vocal Left and taking to the streets.

For far too long, a highly organized vocal minority has had an outsized influence on our national discourse. What scares the kosKids like Jeremy to death are people like Palin and the TEA Party participants: they put the lie to the essential Truth that the kosKids have always told themselves - that they speak for the common man.

Palin, regardless of her other plusses and minuses, is an Everyman. Much of her appeal is based on this fact, and the reason the Leftists seek to destroy her is because every single aspect of her life makes them liars:

1) That you need to attend an Ivy League school to get ahead in life, and that Ivy League graduates have a unique hold on knowledge.2) That beauty pageant participants are necessarily stupid and vapid.3) That having a Down's Syndrome baby is an automatic reason to abort a child and proof that the pro-abortion position is the only one a reasonable person can select.4) That women who get married are subjugating themselves to the will of their husband.5) That women have to remain childless in order to get ahead professionally.6) That men will never willingly take a lead role in child-rearing.7) That only a woman who blindly follows the tenets of the feminist movement is truly empowered.

etc.

Palin is proof that what they have always said is a lie, and it scares the hell out of them. So they unleash their minions to slander and attack her family in attempt to intimidate her into silence. Their failure to do so thus far only infuriates them further because it threatens the entire belief system on which they depend.

Jeremy's world is crashing down around his ears. What you're seeing is merely the last state of a desperate lashing out before the inevitable crash comes.

Why is it that someone in this country who "sins" is not allowed to "redeem" themselves? In particular republicans. Those liberals and supposed conservatives, who throw stones at republicans for bettering themselves, are the most judgmental cretins I have every experienced.

These liberals & supposed conservatives, seem to be envious of politicians like Palin & her family, who are trying to stay loyal to core conservative beliefs, even though their families may be struggling with the pressures of the modern world, in particular modern liberal morals.

These liberal & supposed conservatives greatly disagree & ridicule conservative politicians who also support conservative moral principles, even after said conservative politician or their children, momentarily fall away from said conservative moral principles.

anyone with an ounce of religious history knowledge would know that some of the greatest saints, or holy or religious persons, were also once great sinners, ie Augustine, King David, El-Shabazz, Mary of Egypt, and Matt Talbot.

Saint Francis for example, was young and sometimes vain man. His conversion transformed him over time to become humble and to serve the poor and needy.

Other people, like Matt Talbot of Ireland, changed from vices like alcoholism to become en example of holiness. Matt Talbot is not a saint yet, but is up for canonization.

As St. Augustine noted, the Church acts as a school for sinners, giving them assured channels of grace, the knowledge of God and themselves, to become holy and better people.

Why is it so hard for conservatives or republicans to discuss this timeless topic of picking one-self up after falling and learning from one's mistakes? HOW SHOULD THIS SELF-IMPROVEMENT BE AN OPPORTUNITY TO RIDICULE SOMEONE BY THE LIBERAL MEDIA? ONLY LIBERALS CAN PERVERT THE SINCERE ACTIONS OF A PERSON RESPONDING TO GRACE & MATURING INTO BEING A RESPONSIBLE & MORALLY GOOD PERSON.

"I will defer to the regulars here, but are we absolutely certain that Jeremy isn't Sully himself?"

Sullivan is a lot smarter than Jeremy, for one. Also Sullivan is probably too busy to post a hundred comments a day, every day, in the comments section of Althouse.

People, "Jeremy" isn't a "KosKid", he's not a deluded college student, he's not a true believer. "Jeremy" is a troll. Ideology isn't the issue. The troll seeks to disrupt and destroy online communities. That's it. There is no reason to make substantive arguments with the things he says. He may not even believe the things he says. He's not here to debate the other side. He's here to cause problems.

Why is it when I see these stupid articles by the like of Sullivan, Olbermann, Donny D. on Morning Joe and other libs blaming the Palin family, I immediately think of that movie with Jodie Foster. Remember the one in the bar where she gets gang raped. NOW LET ME THINK...WHOSE FAULT WAS THAT...THE RAPERS OR FOSTERS.

"Jeremy" is not only a troll but a self-admitted conspiracy. "He" said, a few weeks ago, and I'm sorry I didn't bookmark it, that he had other people, supposedly his employees, spell him at his trolling duties from time to time.

Anyway, I will waste no further words or thoughts on the subject. My comments in this thread and elsewhere are sufficient and I'm tired of repeating myself. Trolls that are not controlled succeed in their task. Whatever happens, happens. I know Althouse likes to try to "reform" bad commenters, and sometimes this approach might be effective. But "Jeremy" isn't a bad commenter, he's an internet troll and he will NOT change his ways.

Jeremy may be a troll, but the post is about Andrew Sullivan and his obsession with destroying Sarah Palin. It is ironic since Palin is the type of conservative Andrew used to support. But whatever the reasons, his attacks are over the top and not based on anything Palin objectively did to bring them on.

Many on the left are like this about her, Sullivan is just more visible with his own blogsite.

I like the people here, especially Palladian, but wonder why they don't ignore the troll? Its real easy to scroll past his comments. Sure, he'll come back under some other name, but he's real easy to spot and ignore.

Getting back to the actual thread, I think I could say the same about sullivan, he should simply be ignored at this point with anything having to do with the Palin's There is some deep psychological issue being played out there that I doubt even he can explain to himself. Like those japanese salarymen that buy the soiled panties from school girls, I don't want to know and the less said the better.

Remember, Obama's words about family being "off limits" was about Palin's Daughter Bristol and her pregnancy in the first place. It was one classy thing he did or said I can point to in his candidacy. It was also the ONLY thing he could say about that.

Did his "minions" listen? No. And they continue, to their continuing disgrace. Somehow, Palin's kids are not off limits, unlike any other politician. Did she bring Trig up? Yes, of course, it's a compelling story and fully acceptable in public discourse.

Say what you will about Bristol's promotion of abstinence. Yes, it seems a bit odd, given the evidence. But who better be able to explain the risks? It's not "do as I say, not as I do", it's "don't make the same mistake I did".

Palladian: Anyway, I will waste no further words or thoughts on the subject. My comments in this thread and elsewhere are sufficient and I'm tired of repeating myself. Trolls that are not controlled succeed in their task.

Agreed. Why bother to express yourself when its shouted down by poo-flinging monkeys like Jeremy? No one will want to wade through the filth for a few comments. And without a comment section, I think your blog will die, Ann.

Christy, way up at the top of this thread, said what I thought about the comment that they should keep Willow away from David Letterman.

I think it was intended to sound like Willow might set things straight by beating the crap out of Letterman. It would show the world that he's a pansy who hides behind "it's a joke!", while actually being a contemptible creep.

If Todd Palin came on the show and knocked out some of Letterman's teeth, he'd be arrested. If Willow did it, I think she'd walk. And Letterman would never work again. I like thinking about Letterman getting beaten up by a girl.

In the meantime, Sullivan is doing a fantastic job collecting, translating and interpreting scores of suppressed dispatches from the revolution in Iran - which could be the most important political event of the decade - while others piss and moan about whether an Alaskan drama queen and would-be pretender to the Ahmadinejad impulse in America is getting enough cover for her irrelevant outbursts and tantrums from you-know-who.

I think I know whose case I would tend to take more seriously.

And to think there are followers of this site who see themselves as defenders of freedom!

Andrew Sullivan is the one who spent the entire presidential election obsessing about who the Palin babys real mother was - claiming to 'only want the truth'. Doesn't this tell you everything you need to know about him?

Andrew Sullivan is the one who spent the entire presidential election obsessing about who the Palin babys real mother was - claiming to 'only want the truth'. Doesn't this tell you everything you need to know about him?

Yes, Obama will be like the man who stood in front of the tank in Tianenman Square!

Now who thinks he's a "messiah"?

The U.S. is wise to keep its comments muted. This is, was, and always should have a been a matter for the Iranians to see through on their own. The only thing that matters is what the Iranian military decides to do.

I thought the joke was Willow would kick his as* on sight ergo it would best to keep her away... seriously, that my first read take... still is my take (vs it being another rape joke ie: that letterman is too icky).

though I also admire Ann's keen writing ability and sharp eye for choice of posting subjects - it's why I keep coming back - it is taking less and less of my day. There are many up and comers who are ably replacing her on the horizon, who have not yet had to deal with the troll mental midgets who come only to disrupt and not engage, even heatedly engage.

I make no threats about this blogs future - I hope that Ann blogs long and prospers, and certainly that she and Meade have a truly wonderful life together. But I will leave with this observation: every business, every organization that I have ever been associated with or spent time observing starts it's downward arc to irrelevance when the involvement of it's creative driving force begins taking a back seat while trying to pretend that nothing has changed.

"You're against what you call socialism, all the while know you either currently or in the future will take advantage of everything from Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment, Veteran's Benefits, Social Security, etc....ALL socialist programs."

Well, J, I have in fact collected unemployment (I was in the dot.com bubble collapse, immediately followed by 9/11, in NYC) and while I'm in line to collect Social Security in 20 years, I'd vote for its repeal.

So, you wanted me to give up the teat I'd paid for for 20 years?

But I'd kill the pig I suckled from a few year ago because now I have real (not metaphorical) children, and I'm afraid the metaphorical pig currently being fed metaphorical steroids will be bad news for my real children.

I hope that last paragraph made your head hurt. Welcome to the world where abstract thought has concrete repercussions.

I think Obama said family was off-limits because people were beginning to criticize Michelle Obama after she started her "America is a mean country" tripe. She was always bitching about something, and they finally pulled her off the campaign trail because her attitude was hindering his campaign.

If he made a gentlemanly gesture toward Sarah Palin's family, I didn't hear it.

"Stapleton is an idiot for trying to show that she can joke too and cranking out another dose of child-rape humor."

I wouldn't call her an idiot, but she clearly gave Sullivan too much credit for understanding satire. I suspect that he's suffering from 'roid rage.

Oops, sorry about the HIV treatment joke. It was in bad taste and I apologize. But he did put his condition out front by writing an article about how his Testosterone injections affected his moods and aggression.

Oops, again. I shouldn't have made fun of his ludicrous attempt to argue that Palin isn't entitled to place her family off limits. It was in bad taste and I'm sorry.

Didn't Obama say that he didn't want his daughters to be punished by being pregnant? Snap, there I go again . . .

I think the early commentators (and Ann herself) missing what the spokeswoman meant.Look, the Palin family lives out in the edge of wilderness. seaplane docked outback (to get around) kind of edge of wilderness. Bears and wolves around kind of edge of wilderness.(Spokeswoman knows this and she might even know the family personally.) there is no chance that Willow is not trained in rifle/shotgun skills, if not to protect herself and the household if nothing else. With her family's history, she has probably been hunting, and on her father's side she would be expected to know how to gut and skin a kill (maybe even field butchery as well).

Letterman has used his "bully pulpit" to either insult, or threaten her (in the mistaken impression that she was her sister, not that that would make that much difference to Willow in all likelihood) Upon finding out his "mistake" he has not only expressed no remorse, he rather blatantly doesn't care.Under those circumstances, which the PAC spokeswoman presumably knows, it would've been unhealthy if not fatal for Letterman, and expensive for the Palin family legal budget, to let Willow into the presence of David Letterman.

Not another child rape joke in sight, just a humorous analysis of the likely feelings of Willow about the scumbag, and the possible repercussions of the meeting.

Way upthread, Palladian wrote: Sullivan does not, at least as far as he's revealed, even have AIDS, let alone "full blown aids dimentia" [sic].Sullivan has written about how he's HIV positive, and about his medications. One of the first things I read from him was this NYT piece. He's gone through fluctuations in his CD4 and CD8 counts (e.g. here). As far as I can tell from when I was still reading him, his treatment has been working very well and in 2007 his viral load was undetectable. But, as he would be the first to say - the virus never completely goes away.

That said, I agree that speculating about his disease is in poor taste... just as speculating about Palin's daughter's pregnancy was.

The lefty and mainstream media attitude towards Palin is fascinating, and worthy of a whole series of academic studies. If only the women's studies departments were up to the task.

I think it began as an effort to brand Palin in a political sense; she was an unknown, and in the first few weeks after her introduction it made sense, purely as a political calculation, to fix in the public's mind a narrative for what she was. Since the media and lefties were pulling so hard for Obama, the normal rules of decency pretty much went out the window straight away. It was amazing and astonishing to see it in action.

After the election, I think they started believing their own propaganda. Palin had become a two-minutes-of-hate figure. Sullivan is worse than most, but far from the only one.

This is all the more amazing because Palin still doesn't actually have that much of a political identity. Quick, what's she in favor of or opposed to? As a VP pick, she had to toe the McCain line, not put forward her own ideas. She could run in 2012 on whatever platform she picked and no one could really accuse her of flip-flopping.

She's clearly got talent as a politician. And I suspect she's about as well informed on, say, foreign policy as Obama was as a state senator. With the additional benefit of having executive experience and a history of fighting corruption instead of winking at it. She's got a compelling story.

I think it's really nice that Ms. Althouse appears not to have had as much contact with violent and unpleasant people as I have. I'd have avoided such familiarity, too, but but someone has to work in the loony bins. "To rip him a new one," is not a reference to anal rape, but to general violence and even to severe verbal assault. The less poetic description of a hypothetical physical confrontation between Willow Palin and Letterman is that she is stronger and tougher than he is, and that he angered her enough that, if she were to allow herself to lose control, she could damage his effete self.

didn't obama appear shirtless recently in a washington magazine? can we start calling him a man-hoe? and everyday we see michelle in a new outfit but no one questions the accumulating cost of these garbs...are they free? purchased from her own pocket? i guess andy is too busy thinking of the perfect earings to go with these outfits to be bothered with any probing questions.

Jeff Weimer: "Remember, Obama's words about family being "off limits" was about Palin's Daughter Bristol and her pregnancy in the first place. It was one classy thing he did or said I can point to in his candidacy. It was also the ONLY thing he could say about that.

Did his "minions" listen? No."

His minions *did* listen to what he told them in private, which was "I'm going to spout some pious boilerplate about Palin's family being 'off limits' but you better keep going after her 24x7 if you want to stay employed". As you said, it was the ONLY thing he could say publicly.

There is an element of the gay community that calls the straight community "breeders." There are people of all stripes who consider children a liability. Letterman has a toddler at home who is probably in big boy pants by now, so I suspect he knows whereof he speaks when he takes that cant. Grow up, expand your circle of love, and start being a good example, Dave. (And Shalom, the irony of your alias is decidedly unfunny.)

I also took Stapleton's remark to mean that Willow would kick Letterman's ass bigtime. Sullivan is just such an idiot he cannot let any statement by a Palin or a Palin spokesperson go by without his boilerplate hatred, envy and narcissism spewing forth.

Sarah Palin is a much bigger and better woman than Sullivan will ever be. His attempts to destroy her only make her bigger and stronger.

Knox: "I want someone to get in there and clean house and reduce gov't. Has she done that in Alaska? I'm not sure I've really seen that."

Gov. Palin has used the line item veto to cut state expenditures some 20% in the last two years, despite howls of outrage from some of her more dependent constituents.

Note that this is not the Beltway kind of first-derivative "cut", where you reduce the rate of growth but still allow the overall spending to increase. This is an honest to goodness 20% haircut for the tax eaters.

The reforms she made to severance taxes will help Alaska ride out the recession better than practically any other state. It's important to note that these are predictable, orderly, uniformly applied severance taxes, and not the punitive, irrational "windfall profits" taxes so beloved of economically ignorant Democratic levellers. It's also important to recall just how corrupt and Byzantine the severance tax system had become under her predecessors, and how much moxie it took for her to take on her state's major industry and both of its political parties simultaneously.

Getting Exxon-Mobil to knuckle under to her pipeline project is a pretty big deal too, at least to the kind of people who like their houses warm in winter. There will be a lot of good jobs coming from AGIA too.

It burns me up when people question her fitness for high office based on fluff like her accent or her family woes or where she went to college. This woman has a proven record of accomplishment that puts all of the men who preceded her as Governor in the shade. She is not just a charismatic political talent, but someone with a real gift for getting important things done.

Imagine if she were a pro-choice conservative Democrat, changing not one other thing about her life story, and running on, let's say, Kerry's 2004 ticket. Can you even begin to comprehend the lavish hagiography she would have received from the same people who cannot now speak of her in other than bug-eyed, spittle-flecked fits of rage?

If Obama fails, which I would give at least even odds at the moment, she will be very well positioned. Imagine if our inflation is 20% and unemployment 15% in 2012, and oil is $180 per barrel, and the prime rate is 14%, and Seoul or Tel Aviv has been nuked, and Alaska has ridden out the recession in fine condition thanks to Sarah's foresight and strong fiscal medicine. Imagine further that she has spent four years really boning up on issues of international and national importance, which behind the scenes I strongly suspect is the case. And imagine that she runs on a Nixon-goes-to-China platform of drug decriminalization (I know, a guy can dream...) I don't think it is the slightest bit implausible that she could take Obama down really hard.

I'm not implying that sympathy for the treatment she and her family have received is qualification enough to run for President. It's not, just as law school, community organizing, two autobiographies and a lackluster legislative career aren't qualification enough for the job either.

Any candidate who is plucked out of nowhere at the 11th hour and is placed on a presidential ticket as a Hail Mary pass by the person at the top of the ticket is going to have to endure what Palin was subjected to. As I said at the time, Palin could've run in the GOP primaries and gone through all the vetting that would've come with that over a longer "getting to know her" time frame (as opposed to everyone having to scramble to find out everything they can find on her in a short period of time), and then McCain could've picked her as his running mate after all that. Instead, McCain picked someone even he had yet to vet, holding his breath praying he'd get lucky.

I can't recall any candidate for high office who didn't have to go through harsh scrutiny, and see his or her family go through that as well. The problem with Palin is that she was found to have been hiding a lot, was found to have lied a lot, and was exposed as not being prepared for the job she was seeking. This in a candidate who parachuted into the campaign at the last minute and was asking for an awful lot of power.

It's not the "elites" fault that she was cramming at the last minute for the Vice Presidency. People sensed she was trying to bluff her way through the campaign as an unprepared candidate, and that made her ridiculous. Also, she was trying to be a divisive attack dog to mobilize the hard right base of the GOP, but yet wanted to be treated with kid gloves in return.

But that's a separate issue. Or at least it should be. But a lot of people are smart enough to realized that the attacks on the Palins are just proxy attacks on themselves. The disdain for her and her family is the disdain that the presumptive elite feel towards a majority of Americans. And that should be worrisome to anyone who cares about the future cohesiveness of our Nation. It certainly worries me, and I (ostensibly) have a lot more culturally in common with the Obamas than the Palins.

It worries me that a lot of people think someone who couldn't answer basic questions in interviews to demonstrate she has the basic knowledge the job she sought required of her was respected by the hard right of the GOP just because she didn't abort a Downs Syndrome baby, shot a lot of animals, and was easy on the eyes.

The average American swing voter extended respect to her when she was first picked by McCain, but lost that respect when she didn't appear to know what she was talking about. That's her fault, not anyone else's.

She wanted a job she was not qualified for. She wasn't unqualified because of her cultural backround. She could've easily shut people up had she blown us away in the campaign. She was unqualified because she didn't know anything except how to make moose chili and sausages for Greta van Sustren.

"I apologize to Willow Palin, Bristol Palin and Sarah Palin for the crudeness of my jokes which were not in good taste. I hereby retract them, and offer my apologies to the Palin family."

He did not do that simple thing.

That makes him a coward, a cad, and reprehensible in his attitude towards the Palins and in thinking that young women should be the object of rape jokes, towards young women as a whole. That demonstrates a basic coarseness of character, a low level of thinking, and in attempting to offer a non-apology that he tries to twist into casting HIM as the victim of his own jokes, is disgusting.

One can say he does have the right to say what he did.

And not support a single word of it as it is reprehensible and lowers the level of discourse in society. His jokes are defensible on no other grounds, and if he did do this for mere ratings, his character is further lowered into being a mere shill without any character that is positive accrued to him. That does not make what he did any better, but makes it worse by an order of magnitude.

How do I know he has no decency?

He has not apologized and retracted what he said by acknowledging it has gone over the line. Instead he wishes to erase that line... and when those you LIKE become the next target, by supporting Letterman NOW, you will have no recourse to defend them. And that leads to no good place at all.

Great post. I am beyond frustrated with how the Palin family has been treated from the moment Sarah Palin was announced as the GOP VP nominee.

This would never happen to a family of Democrats. Never. Liberals see a politically conservative family and are intent on proving they are frauds, regardless of who gets hurt, how many lies are told, etc.

Andrew Sullivan is an ideological bigot. His blind-faith adoration of Obama guides his every move. Remember - Sarah Palin mocked Obama in her speeches calling Obama a community organizer who voted "present". Palin commited a huge crime in speaking out. How dare she? You don't do that in Obama's America. Obama went to an angry Jew-hating Black liberation neo-Marxist hate church for 20 years - and anti Christian bigot Andrew Sullivan has no problem with that.

Andrew hates Sarah Plain, just like every other two-bit left-wing hack. How dare she even exist?How dare she have children - they must be tortured by the left-wing hate-filled hacks, becasue, you know, Sarah Palin dared to mock "the One".